The Starkville Photography Club is bringing Starkville residents and Mississippi State University students together in a diverse community of shutterbugs and artists.

The club began with a simple Facebook group formed in October 2022. Arielle Jones, a local photographer, created a group to connect photographers in the Starkville area. As more people joined to share photos and ideas, new relationships were formed and new ideas were born.

Rosemary Wright saw the Facebook group as a launching point for getting together to grow and learn as photographers. With this vision, she created an in-person group.

“I used to live in Boise, Idaho, and there was a group of photographers there that would get together and do shoots about once a season. They were always great fun with great photographers,” Wright said. “So, I thought, why not start a group here too?”

J.C. Long, a photographer and Starkville resident, was present at the first meeting of the Starkville Photography Club and helped Wright gather photographers for the initial meeting in June 2023.

“I asked Rosemary how I could help her, and her reply was the suggestion of a group photoshoot,” Long said. “The first shoot was sunset light in the beauty of the grounds surrounding the Bost Center and Hunter Henry Center.”

At that meeting, several group members got together to walk the grounds and photograph several local models, as well as each other, while utilizing the university’s landscape and architecture.

Candace Morris is another Columbus photographer who comes to Starkville for the meetings. “I’m heading up the next meeting,” Morris said. “I’m really excited about getting to build relationships with everybody. There didn’t seem to be a community for photographers in our area, and I’ve been really hungry for that.”

Long agrees that community is necessary for photographers and believes that Starkville is a prime location for that community to grow in what he calls a “grassroots movement.”

“We have a unique opportunity here because of the collective culture. We’re drawing on a rich cultural landscape here. This is a wonderful opportunity for anyone, especially those who are connected to Starkville beyond just Mississippi State University,” Long said. “Many Starkville residents aren’t originally from Starkville, and that’s all tied to the university. Starkville residents are from way far out, and that makes this place really interesting and unique. People come here to learn, work or teach, and put their roots down right here in this town. It creates a diverse and unique landscape that makes Starkville itself.”

Photographers in the group work together to learn and experiment with new projects and techniques. Morris is particularly excited to work with studio lighting.

“I am not a studio photographer, so it has been nice to talk to people who are doing that and have experience with it. I am very excited to learn more,” Morris said.

Kelli Jacobs, a digital asset coordinator for MSU, has been a member of the group since its conception. She encourages students who are interested in photography to join the club.

“The more diverse we can get, the better it’s going to be,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs, inspired by the club and the photographers she has met, has been working on building a magazine to showcase the work of the club and other photographers in Mississippi.

“I have submitted my work to small regional magazines before, and I thought, why not start something local?” Jacobs said. “If it takes off, that will be great.”

Jacobs’ first issue is tentatively set to be released within the next month.

“It’s called Mississippi Photographers Magazine, and I’m especially excited to feature photographers from the club,” Jacobs said. “I’ve been playing around with the layout, and I’m looking for some more submissions.”

For Wright, the group is exactly what she was looking for,

“I’d say the group is working in that direction, towards building community,” she said.

Those interested in the club, Mississippi Photographers Magazine or photography opportunities in Starkville can join the Starkville Photography Club Facebook group.

“We don’t all know what we’re doing, or where we’re going, but we’re excited to get there,” Long said.

Trade-ins take the financial sting out of upgrading your tech, especially if you’re someone who always wants the latest and greatest devices. You can trade-in your old smartphone, tablet, laptop, you name it, and take a small (or large) portion off the bill for your new purchase. (Or, in some cases, forgo paying for the new device at all.)

Of course, the entire deal hinges on the condition of the device you’re trading in. Most buyers assume your phone or laptop will have accumulated some minor wear and tear in use, even with cases, screen protectors, and protective sleeves. But what they usually look for is that the device is fully functional and free from major cosmetic damage. The worse the device’s condition, the lower your trade-in quote is going to be.

But let’s say your device is in great condition. You take the trade-in survey, and confirm to the buyer that your, say, iPhone, looks and operates as it should. You package it up, send it off, wait until the buyer receives it, only to find an email claiming the device you sent in didn’t match the conditions you said it was in. There could be dents, scratches, a broken display, perhaps buttons don’t work, or the phone doesn’t turn on at all. As such, they reduce the amount of money they’ll offer you for the phone, as the original quote was contingent on the device you described in the survey. You could appeal, of course, but you don’t have the device yourself, so you can’t prove it was in good condition when you sent it off.

Take photos and video of your devices before trading them in

Some good documentation can potentially save your trade-ins, and get you the money you believe you deserve. Before packing up your device to ship off to the buyer, take photos or video of it from different angles, so you can prove it is free from any major cosmetic issues or damage. It’s not a bad idea, either, to record the device in operation: Wake it up and unlock it, for example, to show that a buyer would have no problem using the device as it is now.

It’s not a bad idea to show that the charger works, too. Plug your phone or laptop into power, and demonstrate how it begins charging. If you really want to be thorough, you could capture the device’s serial number in the video, too, just so there’s no doubt that it’s the device you traded in or sold.

This is something I’ve done with my trade-ins in the past, just in case something happens to the device in-transit. Again, you have no control over what happens with your phone, tablet, laptop, what have you when it leaves your possession, but if you have proof of its condition before it gets in the box, you have the upper hand against issues down the line.

What prompted this piece was this since-removed post on r/samsung. The poster recommended that Galaxy users take photos and videos of their Samsung phones before trading them in. There are some helpful anecdotes in that thread, too: One user, for example, was told their smartphone had a cracked display upon arrival. The user asked for an email to contact, so they could send pictures and video to prove the display was fine when they mailed it out. Thankfully, the claim was dropped following the proof.

While tech is the focus here, this really is good practice for just about any device you want to trade-in or sell, from devices, to equipment, to antiques. You don’t want a buyer claiming the camera lens you sold them has a crack through it, or the commemorative glass you sent out is shattered. Add an extra minute or two to the packing process by documenting your trade-ins. It’s great insurance should you need it.

I’d been thinking about getting some kind of lighting system for night photography for quite some time. As someone who is primarily a landscape photographer, I wanted to expand my time outside, but most of my work was at sunset or dawn. 

After some basic research, I knew I wanted an LED small lighting system that could produce virtually any color, could fit in my pocket, and would be rechargeable. 

I liked the Luxli Fiddle Pocket LED light, and it seemed to fit my needs. It works with an Android or iOS app or can function alone. Its list price is $310, but the usual online stores have it at lower prices. 

What’s It For?

As a landscape photographer, I saw it as a way to light subjects at night and increase my useable time when it’s dark. I hoped I could light the interiors of abandoned buildings (we have a lot in Arizona, especially in our numerous ghost towns). I also saw it as a tool to get some warm or cool light on the cactus that I often photograph. 

Tech Specs

The panel is a 5″ diagonal RGBAW honeycomb of 78 LEDs, which can create almost any color on their own or with combining LEDs. The light is equipped with Bluetooth 5, which pairs with Luxli’s Composer mobile app from up to 100 feet away. Whether controlled via the app or the intuitive interface on the unit itself, the Fiddle’s multiple operating modes will deliver any color or brightness of light you desire. The color temperature range is from 2,800 to 10,000 K. You can dial it what you want from the app or the front screen on the Fiddle itself.

The Fiddle runs on a powerful internal rechargeable battery that boasts over three hours of runtime at full brightness. When it’s time to recharge, the USB Type-C connector supports Power Delivery 3.0, so the Fiddle can be quickly recharged from the included wall adapter, a power bank, or a car charger.

CCT (correlated color temperature) mode is perfect for setting traditional lighting temperatures from 2,800 to 10,000 K in 50 K increments. A filter mode lets you accent it with one of the 150 preloaded “gels.” Of course, with this device, gels are a thing of the past. It’s all done electronically. The expansive HSL mode lets you produce nearly every hue of the visible spectrum. Also, using the app, you can load any picture or video you have, tap on a color you want, and the Fiddle will duplicate it.

The Fiddle case is rugged, with a forged aluminum chassis. There are two controls for adjusting color values. For much of your photography, you’ll want it on a tripod or something to keep it steady. The Fiddle body has two 1/4-20 threaded sockets to give you the option of mounting the Fiddle on a tripod, light, stand, or ball head. With the right adapter, it’s compatible with a DSLR or camcorder for vertical or horizontal mounting. You can also use the versatile Joby GorillaPods.

First Time Out With The Luxli Fiddle

I was thinking of a good place to test the Fiddle at night and thought it would be fun to find some abandoned cars and light them up. They’re not too hard to locate, and I found six junked cars near an abandoned tire shop. 

I loaded the Fiddle on what was left of the seat of a junked car and set up my camera about 20 feet away. Using the Luxli iOS app, I chose the brightness and color I thought would work. The app quickly connected to the lights, and I was ready to experiment. 

For my photos, I also wanted to catch the star field, so I settled on 17-second exposures before the stars began to trail. Exposures at that length meant the Fiddle needed to be dimmer, so I dialed the brightness down. That adjustment was smooth, anywhere from zero to 100%. 

I experimented with different colors, which was easy from the app, and had complete HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance) control. 

I liked the results. It was a different form of photography than I was used to, but the Fiddle light certainly opened up a lot of possibilities. 

Things I Learned Using the Luxli Fiddle

Luxli makes a diffuser that magnetically clips on to the light, and I bought that later. It makes a difference in softening the light and would recommend it to potential buyers. Luxli also offers a case for the Fiddle, which is useful. I just had mine in my coat pocket, which was OK, but the case, which can hook to a belt, seems a really good option.

Things I Liked

• Very reasonable in price. Current online prices are about $240.
• Build quality is excellent. I dropped mine a few times, and it survived unscathed.
• It’s small, portable, and can last three hours. You can hook an external battery to it via USB-C and it functions and charges at the same time.
• The app is easy to use and very powerful. I liked that the Bluetooth range is very long. At 30 feet, I had no trouble operating the light. It’s specified at 100 feet.

Would Like to See

• I can’t remember a product I’ve reviewed without reservation. Luxli has done it all with the light and the app. To own this is to use it. To use it is to like it.

Summing Up

Obviously, this light does a lot more than let you take night shots of junk cars. It’s got great uses in portraits, product lighting, and a whole host of things I haven’t thought of. It’s not going to light up a big building from a great distance, but there are other lighting products for that, but this light and some time exposures will help you with almost any lighting problem. I wish I’d discovered the Luxli Fiddle a long time ago, but having bought one, I’m going to use it on multiple photo shoots. Check it out if you think you can find some uses for one. You can purchase the Luxli Fiddle Pocket LED light here.

Lifestyle photographer Amy Harrison focuses on capturing the feelings happening behind the lens. Originally from the Bay area in California, Harrison grew up always being drawn to nature and art. In 2014 she made the move to Arizona and now calls Queen Creek home.

As a kid Harrison was always painting and drawing, but photography was always something that had interested her. She was that friend that would always take the best photos for everyone’s social media accounts. It was one of her friends that pushed her to pursue photography.

“It took a lot for me to take the leap and financially invest in myself,” said Harrison, owner of Emotion Photography. “I finally decided to invest in the equipment and then I just started and it’s been amazing. I feel like the artist part of me got unlocked again.”

It was the summer of 2022 when she first started buying gear and learning the ins and outs of her camera. In October of 2022 she started doing photo sessions. 

Shooting everything from maternity to senior pictures, weddings to family portraits, branding shoots and more, Harrison encourages people to reach out to her for whatever event they may need covered. She’s open to anything!

“I really feel like our relationships are the most important thing that we have in this life and I think that’s why it’s magnified when there’s people together that love each other… trying to capture that and bring that feeling out in a photograph is what brings me so much passion,” Harrison said.

“It’s capturing the way his hand is in her hair or the way she’s holding her face. The way they’re kissing, the way a mother is holding their baby or the way this beautiful person is just looking off… it’s just capturing these little snippets of them and their interactions that highlight the depth of a relationship.” 

Instead of focusing on getting that perfectly posed photograph, her goal is to capture you. With the belief that everyone has a beauty to them, Harrison’s goal is to allow that to shine through in her work. 

“It’s almost like I’m just documenting you being you, you being with your favorite people, you having fun at the lake or whatever it is that we’re at… it’s more so that I’m documenting what’s taking place versus a posed, frozen, perfectly in place photo,” Harrison said. “It’s capturing the little special moments that happen as people are interacting.”

Having put her artistic roots aside for a while due to other priorities, Harrison’s happy to get back into creating. It’s given her a chance to reawaken that creative part of her that had become dormant. 

Looking ahead to her short-term goals, Harrison wants to master her craft and continue to build her business. Long-term, she’d love to become a destination elopement photographer. 

This job allows her to be a part of all of these magical moments people share. She wants her subjects to feel comfortable enough around her so they can be themselves as if the camera isn’t there. That’s when the photos with the most emotion come out. 

“It’s these happy and beautiful moments, things that they want to cherish forever that I get to be a part of by capturing those memories for them,” Harrison said.

To see some of Harrison’s work with Emotion Photography or to book a photo shoot, visit emotionphotography.org. 

Granted, this isn’t the first time Kanye has asserted his dominance over his new wife.

Back in October, Page Six reported that Ye has ordered Censori to “never speak,” in addition to requesting that she abide by his wardrobe suggestions.

“Kanye has a set of rules for Bianca, which includes never speak and wear what he wants her to wear,” a source told the outlet. “She is also required to eat certain food items and to work out even though Kanye doesn’t work out.” The insider added that Bianca “has no mind of her own anymore.”

Weeks later, the couple was rumored to be taking a break following an intervention orchestrated by Censori’s friends and family. At the time, someone close to the situation told Page Six that Kanye and Bianca had been living apart since mid-October, with Censori’s family questioning whether marrying the rapper was the right decision.

The split didn’t last long, as Kanye and Bianca were seen partying together in November, before the former celebrated the latter’s birthday earlier this month with dozens of Instagram posts.

The dernier cri of photography is that everything that was old is new again. It’s evident in the work of people like Terry Richardson. Despite how much we’ve cancelled him, the look of direct flash is something that people buy into every few years. The work has gone on to shape the looks from growing powerhouses like Lanna Apisukh and Amy Lombard. But some things are absolutely timeless — like the classic style of Elliot Erwitt. Like a Filson bag, it consistently works and touches our emotions in a way that’s just enough to put a smile on our faces. Some of his work around photographing dogs is the root of a powerful lesson in photography.

The Power of Substiution

One of Elliot Erwitt’s lengedary photographs can be seen here at this link on his website. It’s the adorable photograph of a bulldog in someone’s lap completely blotting out the human’s face. It looks almost like the person being photographed in half dog and half human. That’s how our mind thinks of it at least — and the fact that it’s in black and white further adds to this. There is no color in the frame, so you clearly cannot tell the difference between where the human begins and where the dog does.

Our mind immediately thinks that something is amiss here. The idea is neatly summarized by Brian Dilg in his book, Why You Like This Photo. Specifically, the reads, “When something expected and important is subtituted with something similar but surprising, the principle of substituoion makes us do a double take.” In many cases, it actually just makes that you gaze at the image for longer than a fleeting moment. This is a powerful technique to get people to stop scrolling past your photos on social media where they’re bombarded by so much other stimuli.

An Awareness of the Moment

“When something expected and important is subtituted with something similar but surprising, the principle of substituoion makes us do a double take.”

Brian Dilg

To achieve this kind of understanding, we have to train our mind to be in the moment. Street photographers learn to develop this skill very well. We’ve explained how many street photographers work in the past; but Willie Velazquez is a great modern example of someone who understands the moment as it is happening before him. Certain documentary photographers also are in-tune enough with the moments in front of them to be able to snap the images they need. However, it’s a skill that many photograpehrs these days are lacking because we shoot at 120 frames a second and just decide that we’ll cull through the images later on.

Shooting film greatly helps with curbing this — so too does curbing the brain drain that social media gives to us all. Social media these days feels like television felt like in the 1990s and the 2000s when we sat in front and mindlessly scrolled through channels looking for something to watch. When there was nothing riveting on, we probably found other things or mindlessly watched something else. Eventually, it all just became background noise for us. This too was part of the brain drain; and we can strengthen our minds against it by studying images and looking at prints.

Shoot Like Elliot Erwitt

Of course, Elliot is known for more than this. The great Ibarionex Perello reviewed Kolor for us a while back. And overall, we just have to ensure that our work isn’t boring. There are ways to too that, and it involves getting in touch with your emotions. If you don’t feel anything from an image, the kindest thing that you can do is throw it out if it can’t be salvaged. Some fruit trees are just not worth how much work you have to put into them.

Cyme makes macOS software for photographers, including Avalanche and the photo cataloging app Peakto. Whereas Peakto helps photographers organize their photos across multiple locations and apps, Avalanche allows users to migrate their photos from one editing app to another easily.

Thanks to Avalanche and the way customers use it, Cyme can see how users transfer images from one app to another, reflecting which apps photographers use to edit their images. Avalanche is available in different versions for specific editing applications. For example, Avalanche for Lightroom can convert any Aperture, Capture One, Luminar, iView Media Pro, Apple Photos, and Google Photos catalog to Lightroom while retaining edits, metadata, and folder structure. There’s also Avalanche Unlimited, which costs more but works with each supported target app.

There are limitations to the data set, of course. While Cyme knows how many versions of Avalanche it has sold for each target application, it is only available for Lightroom, Capture One, Luminar, and Apple Photos. People use other apps, like DxO PhotoLab and ON1 Photo RAW, for example. Plenty of people never change their editing app of choice, so there’s no need to purchase Avalanche.

These caveats aside, it is possible to discern general trends among photographers using sales data from 2021, 2022, and 2023. These trends align reasonably well with anecdotal evidence PetaPixel has gathered chatting with photographers about their editing apps in recent years.

Notably, a higher proportion of customers are buying Avalanche for Lightroom each year, meaning that these users are switching to Lightroom from a different photo editing application at relatively higher rates. While the Lightroom user share has gone from 29.4% to 46.8% from 2021 to 2023, sales of Avalanche for Capture One have dropped from 16.4% to 13.1% and then to just 8% last year.

As for Avalanche for Luminar Neo, it accounted for 19.4% of Avalanche sales in 2021, three percentage points more than Capture One. The appeal of Luminar Neo’s intriguing AI-powered and computational features lost a lot of steam in 2022 when sales dipped to 6%. They were at 4.7% last year.

The trend among macOS users switching from one photo editing app to another using Avalanche is that people gravitate more toward Lightroom than any other photo editing app, which isn’t too surprising. However, the increasing rate at which users switch to Lightroom, which has long been the most popular photo editing app, is surprising.

In Cyme’s full breakdown of Avalanche sales data, the company recaps what arrived in 2023 on each photo editing app.

Lightroom’s AI-based masking tools continue to improve, and as much as it ever has been, Lightroom is now a viable alternative to using Photoshop to edit photos. Many photographers can do everything they need within Lightroom, from importing, culling, editing, and printing images.

As for Luminar Neo, Skylum has been getting involved in generative AI technology and making some interesting choices concerning a move to a subscription model. Once supremely popular, Capture One has also gone all-in on subscription pricing and finally launched Capture One on iPhone this year, although the app isn’t great.

Cyme also tapped into its Peakto user base to learn more about photo editing software preferences. Among surveyed Peakto owners, photographers own an average of about four photo editing and management applications. DxO Photolab, Pixelmator’s apps, Affinity Photo, and ON1 software received high marks from Peakto users.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos. Data and figures provided by Cyme.

When architect Amy A. Alper was asked to design a new home on a Glen Ellen property destroyed by the 2017 Northern California wildfires, she felt that the new building should reference its surroundings and the property’s past, but also look toward the future.

“Sadness over the loss (of the previous home on the property) would be overcome by the idea of connection, expressed in a variety of ways,” she explains. Like Alper, the owners wanted the property to represent its “poignant history,” as well as “a renewed future.”

The recently completed Glen Ellen estate has an exterior of stone, Corten steel and cedar that, according to Alper, expresses “another kind of connection” and “anchors” the building to the property’s working vineyard as well as the agricultural history of the region.

Beyond a connection to the past and the surrounding landscape, Alper and the property owners also wanted the new home to foster “emotional connections.” This idea is expressed in the reconfiguration of the home’s entrance, which is now a central feature of the building, and welcomes family and friends through a tower covered in a patchwork of Corten steel. And, compared to the previously much smaller home, there is now ample room to entertain and house guests.

The interior of the building also takes inspiration from the natural setting. Toasted-oak cabinetry matches the golden grassy hillside. Veiny marble slabs in the shower mimic the “movement and soft textures of the grasses and trees outside,” according to Alper. Charcoal tile floors connect to the scorched gray tones that remain amid new green growth. Lots of windows allow light to flood the rooms, giving the home a bright and airy atmosphere. 

Click through the above gallery for a peek inside the Glen Ellen estate.

Amy A. Alper, Architect, alperarchitect.com